Red Slushee!
by Doctor Spitfire
Summary: Short Story for a writing contest on the CBS forums


Red Slushee!

"SOMEONE LIED!!!" the words had been sprawled out at the end of the page. The author of these words, feeling the need to stress them more than anything else, had underlined it several times before drawing a box around it and tracing over it repeatedly with different colors to make a dark ominous appearance.

"So what do you make of it?" Jane said leafing through papers on the dead man's desk.

"Well it appears as though someone lied," Rigsby replied, then motioning to the body collapsed on the floor, "or at least he thought so."

"Very good, that's an important distinction," Patrick Jane remarked.

"I don't know about this," Rigsby continued flipping through the pages. Those two words appeared to be the only legible words or phrases in the whole journal, "I mean, I know how to investigate."

"Do you?" Jane asked, not quite accusingly.

"I'm an agent with the CBI, you don't get there without a little training and experience," He said defending himself.

"Good, yes, that's right," Jane responded as though he hadn't been listening. He had a tendency to drift off like that at times, "but here's the thing, what's the key element in investigation?"

"Evidence?" Rigsby sounded unsure.

"Exactly and how do we obtain evidence?" Jane asked him back.

"I'm not entirely sure how due process relates to your skills," Rigsby was now looking around the room for more clues.

"That's not what I meant," Jane now paying full attention began to explain himself, "When you're at a crime scene you look and listen for clues. You _observe_ the scene in hopes of finding evidence. What I do is just really advanced investigation. If you want me to try to teach you then you've got to be able to hone your observation skills beyond what you ever thought possible."

"Ok, ok, so what's next?" Rigsby was eager to learn.

"We find the liar," Jane said heading from the room.

"I thought you said there might not be one? Remember it could have been all in his head?"

"No I said based on the journal that was a possibility. Based on the body and the room someone definitely lied about something." Jane corrected him, "The man was shot close range from the front and it showed no sign of a struggle which means that person got close enough to him to pull a gun and pull the trigger without him fighting them. He knew them and he trusted them."

"So let me guess you have a theory on who did it already," Rigsby said as they walked from the room towards their first witness.

"Sure, It was uhhh," Jane looked around the room, then pointing to a random member of the investigation squad announced, "That guy did it."

"Yeah ok ha ha," Rigsby was unamused.

"No seriously I'll bet you 20 bucks," Jane said.

"He's one of our guys, he's here to investigate, not a witness. There's no reason to think he even knew the victim,"

"So you don't want 20 bucks?" Jane asked.

"Alright you're on, what's your plan?" Rigsby said, deciding to play along.

"Go over and talk to him, let me take care of the rest," Jane sent Rigsby to speak with the officer before joining Van Pelt with her interview.

"Hello ma'am," he said shaking the witness's hand.

"Nice to see you again Mr. Jane," The woman greeted him; she spoke in an unusually loud voice.

"You know her?" Van Pelt asked him.

"Rigsby and I stopped by 7-11 on the way and I introduced myself," Jane informed her, "She remembers."

"I do to remember," Her loud voice apparently due to her slight hearing problems.

"Do you remember how you knew we were cops?" he asked her motioning to Rigsby.

"Yes," again louder than was necessary, then pointing to Rigsby, "He had a gun with him!"

The cop stopped talking to Rigsby and drew his weapon, "You bitch!"

"DRO-" The officer turned and shot Rigsby square in the chest as Rigsby tried to reach for his weapon.

"RIGSBY!" Van Pelt and Jane ran towards where Rigsby had fallen while the other officers on the scene chased the subject.

A groan escaped from Rigsby as Van Pelt pulled open his shirt to reveal a bullet-proof vest. They helped him up and tended to the bruise. Lisbon came over to check on Rigsby.

"How you doing Rigsby?" She asked.

"Ugh I feel like I was shot, but I'll be ok." He replied.

"Good," Jane said, "Then you'll be able to get me my 20 bucks by Tuesday."

"Sure," he groaned out, "just how did you know it was him?"

"Oh that was easy, the victim was shot with a police issue weapon and he was the only person in any of their family pictures who was an officer."

"He wasn't in any of their pictures," Lisbon exclaimed.

"Sure he was, in the downstairs bathroom over the toilet."

"Why were you in their downstairs bathroom?" Lisbon demanded.

"I had a big gulp on the way," He said shrugging.


End file.
